AdderXYU

So apparently royal blue kids blanks went kaput (and I've seen some similar comments about slate XLs)?

Now, I'm no business man, but if you have an inferior product with inferior reliability of stock, and you also have growing numbers of customers objecting to the quality (from shirt connoisseurs who know the difference to jingoistic "Murr'kan Apparel is made in Murr'ka" nationalists to the average woot geek who just hates the fit to people who literally do not comment but came on to state their disappointment), maaaaybe it's time to admit that the switch was not worth the grown profit margins.

karatejen

I posted my complaint in the Let's Talk about Ladies Shirt thread, but I will add it here too.

I am done buying woot shirts and recommending them to my friends. I would be absolutely embarrassed to have a friend spend $12 - $18 on one of these shirts with the way they fit now, especially a female friend.

jroth420

karatejen wrote:I posted my complaint in the Let's Talk about Ladies Shirt thread, but I will add it here too.

I am done buying woot shirts and recommending them to my friends. I would be absolutely embarrassed to have a friend spend $12 - $18 on one of these shirts with the way they fit now, especially a female friend.

So long!

Exactly! And now they have the cojones to charge 18 bucks for reprints (many of which I would jump for joy to get again) but they're going to put them on those new garbage shirts from Central America with the amorphous shape and the gigantic stretchy neckholes that make them completely unwearable? Please Woot... You gotta be kidding.

thumperchick

jroth420 wrote:Exactly! And now they have the cojones to charge 18 bucks for reprints (many of which I would jump for joy to get again) but they're going to put them on those new garbage shirts from Central America with the amorphous shape and the gigantic stretchy neckholes that make them completely unwearable? Please Woot... You gotta be kidding.

You mean you don't want to pay twice the money for half the quality? Get outta here!

jroth420

I've just never seen a company that went from being so in tune to what their customers wanted or didn't to one who clearly could not care less what any of us think or do. I've never boycotted anything in my life, but Woot has pushed me to that point with their blatant disregard for what their customers are asking them to do.

I mean seriously, multiple people have said on here that they would be willing to pay a couple of bucks more for the AA shirts again, so it's clearly not just profit driven. They obviously just don't like us or care what we have to say. Sigh...

fuzzyfresh

I have been so furious about Shirt Woot switching to the simply AWFUL Anvil shirts that it was too hard for me to even bring myself to write about it these past number of months (since June). THAT is how freaking much I loved Woot! Note the past tense (and yes, I created the animated GIF above fueled with the anger of this helpless situation). I left Threadless when they stopped using American Apparel and have never looked back (after having spent $1,000+ on shirts over there).

I have purchased a total of 42 t-shirts through Woot and was downright horrified when I discovered that Woot switched over to Anvil, after it finally dawned on me that the last few shirts I received were feeling really baggy, short & wrong (Star Fishing, New Waves & Vinyl Kid - still so angry that I cannot wear those amazing designs because the shirts themselves are so freaking terrible and ill fitting). I ordered Sunshine for my lady as a final sad Woot moment on June 20th, 2012 after confirming my worst fears: that Woot had gone to the dark side and switched shirt brands. And that's it: I've never looked back. Oh I went back to the site a couple times to torture myself and see what design was up, but seriously: NO MORE! Haven't looked in months. Because I don't even want to know. THAT IS HOW FREAKING HORRENDOUS THE ANVIL WOOT SHIRTS ARE NOW!

For those of us who literally DEPEND on American Apparel because we have long torsos, there is just no substitute. American Apparel fits me perfectly. Not to mention: I love the tightness of the sleeves and the much discussed overall softness. Anvil sucks. Plain and simple.

I am including screen grabs of all 42 of my Woot purchases (below) because I think this protest needs more visuals.

I f***ing miss Woot so much! I loved coming on the site EVERY SINGLE DAY late at night & seeing the new design. Good LORD I miss doing that! How could you guys just throw your loyal t-shirt connoisseur customer base under the bus so harshly and crush your beautiful designs under the brutal communist block head evil of Anvil shirts?!?

I guess there must be enough brainless t-shirt zombies out there who don't care about t-shirt brand (or more likely who just don't realize how terrible the company kool aid is that they're drinking) to justify your viciously inept decision to stick with this bait and switch nightmare. For those of us on this thread and beyond, who are vehemently outraged by your decision: what say you to us...? Sorry...? Hope you can stick around and wear our t-shirts that no longer fit you correctly...?

F that.

Luckily there are more than enough other outlets to find high quality American Apparel t-shirts with perfectly excellent designs on them all across the cyber sphere (which I won't list for fear of this post being removed, just google around).

But I will alway miss you, Woot. So many of the designs just leapt off the page for me. Always miss the awesome daily ritual.

Just another sad moment of internet sands shifting in a tragic and soul sapping way: Woot switching t-shirt brands to Anvil.

Thanks for teasing me with greatness, Shirt Woot. Thanks for showing what a simple and incredibly cool hip t-shirt boutique could be.

And thanks for reminding me that life is hard and change will happen, even when it seriously sucks and ruins everything.

Ping me when you guys come to your senses and start offering t-shirts on American Apparel again. As mentioned by many: I would have happily shelled out a couple more bucks for AA.

Until then: you are just a fading memory in the rearview mirror of the amazing awesomeness that could have been.

What a COSMIC & HEART BREAKING SHAME!

Sincerely,
Jay

p.s. Just snooped around a bit and I cannot believe that you are now printing seemingly EVERYTHING: every single t-shirt design to ever come through Woot and I cannot buy one of them because they may as well all be printed on burlap sacks. Way to make this divorce all the more brutal and painful. You should be paying me alimony for the amount of grief and distress you are causing me. F***!!!

firebirdude

Let me add my name to the list of those EXTREMELY unhappy with the current blanks. This, and only this, is preventing me from buying random shirts today. :-( But I absolutely refuse to spend one dime for a shirt that will only serve as a dish rag after one wash.

If I were in Woot's shoes, I'd be EMBARRASSED to let those shirts leave my shop.

Primordial

I am out to, I have not bought 1 shirt (or woot item) since I found out about the change. I was certainly one of their top 100 customers (probably top 20) in regards to shirts (I bought plenty of woot stuff too) and now I buy nothing from them. When you are losing your best customers it might be time for second thoughts.....I HAVE found plenty of other great daily shirt sites though, and I buy from them as ferociously as ever.

toolfreak387

These blanks are no good. I washed my "The Narwhal" shirt 1 time and all this white fuzz is coming through the design. It looks like I've washed it 100 times. I have several year old AA shirts from Woot that still look great.

ravinecat

I'd like to apologize. And perhaps this is too late but I was just frustrated. Its really irritating to me to see so many people upset and little to no response from woot. All I really want is to know what is going on. Is woot actually talking about this or is it a non-issue? No one has said anything. Instead we sit here, wanting to buy shirts but not doing so because they won't fit without modification. I know it takes time for things to happen, especially in a business world but I'd at least like to hear something. Communication is key.

I apologize to Thunderthighs for assuming you had a higher position than you did. I wrongly assumed that staff meant more than 'paid to respond to forum users '. Thank you for taking time to deal with our rantings.

goldenthorn

I'd be a bit embarrassed if I were you. You have just single-handedly shown how little woot is caring about this. You took time to respond to the one person not requesting the return of the AA shirt blanks. I guess woot does just want the money, too bad they aren't willing to take the money of all these people who want their old shirts back.

While I sincerely sympathize with your unhappiness over the shirt change all these months ago (as the change has left me without a well-fitting shirt either), personally calling out and attacking a person--employee or otherwise--is not acceptable or tolerated on these forums. ThunderThighs is not woot. She is an employee who does her damned best to help people in the forums to the furthest extent of her abilities and powers--and far beyond. Being able to reply to a specific question about a shipping problem is completely different than being able to address complaint #3,462 about the shirt change (much less every single one that came before it). If you want to complain, please complain. While not responded to, all your complaints are indeed read and noted by woot employees. Constructive complaints and feedback are good! But please remain civil and respectful in your interactions here on woot. Thank you.

thumperchick

I'd be a bit embarrassed if I were you. You have just single-handedly shown how little woot is caring about this. You took time to respond to the one person not requesting the return of the AA shirt blanks. I guess woot does just want the money, too bad they aren't willing to take the money of all these people who want their old shirts back.

I had a wonderfully snarky comment for you, but sometimes tact is the better part of the internets.

ThunderThighs is not the person who decided to change shirt blanks. She doesn't get a say in that at all, really. She's a forum moderator, with an impressive set of gifs.
I'll put money on it that the mods, customer support, and every single woot employee that deals with customers on a day to day basis - all of them wish that they could make us happy. Don't believe me? Picture your job when your most vocal customers are unhappy. Now, picture your job when they're happy. See? TT wants us happy. GoldenThorn misses AA's fit just like we do.

You seem to have attacked someone for the awful crime of attempting to help one of her customers. Speaking of embarrassment...

ThunderThighs

I'd be a bit embarrassed if I were you. You have just single-handedly shown how little woot is caring about this. You took time to respond to the one person not requesting the return of the AA shirt blanks. I guess woot does just want the money, too bad they aren't willing to take the money of all these people who want their old shirts back.

I'm sorry that you feel that way but I think you are giving more credit than I'm due. As a forum moderator, I try to help those that ask for help. I can help someone with their shipping problems.

On the subject of Anvil - there's not much I can do about the shirt blanks. It's a business decision that is far above my pay grade. I read the comments as I have done since the change back in February. In addition, the shirt staff keeps up on the forums and feedback.

Thank you to @goldenthron, @j5, and @thumperchick for having my back. You are a big part of what makes woot & shirt.woot a wonderful community.

ChronoSquall14

While I was going to wind down shirt.woot purchases for a while anyway, I wanted to throw in my feelings about the Anvil blanks as well. For the most part, they're fine. Not quite as good as AA, and the length is of course a tad shorter, but nothing deal-breaking. Except for the collars/necks. Without washing they're kind of embarrassing, and after washing they're still too big and loose. I think Woot! is an awesome company, and I don't need a personalized response from a mod or anything, but I just wanted to provide my general feedback of "tighten up the necks."

The hoodies are fantastic, though.

EDIT: I bit the bullet and dried my shirt. I am reminded of how the Anvil shirts do not shrink much sideways, but the neck tightened up VERY nicely, and the shirt still fits fine. Still a bit less soft of a shirt, but Woot!, I still heart you.

jroth420

ThunderThighs wrote:I'm sorry that you feel that way but I think you are giving more credit than I'm due. As a forum moderator, I try to help those that ask for help. I can help someone with their shipping problems.

On the subject of Anvil - there's not much I can do about the shirt blanks. It's a business decision that is far above my pay grade. I read the comments as I have done since the change back in February. In addition, the shirt staff keeps up on the forums and feedback.

Thank you to @goldenthron, @j5, and @thumperchick for having my back. You are a big part of what makes woot & shirt.woot a wonderful community.

I'm sorry that you got attacked too, as that is unfair to you. However, can you give us ANY insight as to whether the people with the right "pay grade" are hearing about how unhappy their loyal customers are and how many sales they are losing? I'm just really curious as I work at a large company as well, but if we were getting these kinds of complaints, with this kind of volume (quantity not decibels ) then I know it would be discussed at the absolute highest levels and would be addressed. Is it even being thought about by the higher ups there?

thumperchick

jroth420 wrote:I'm sorry that you got attacked too, as that is unfair to you. However, can you give us ANY insight as to whether the people with the right "pay grade" are hearing about how unhappy their loyal customers are and how many sales they are losing? I'm just really curious as I work at a large company as well, but if we were getting these kinds of complaints, with this kind of volume (quantity not decibels ) then I know it would be discussed at the absolute highest levels and would be addressed. Is it even being thought about by the higher ups there?

That would be a question for ProfHotPants. Since she hasn't been on this thread in months, I'm thinking you aren't going to hear from her any time soon. But I would rest assured that she knows what's being said here.

To my knowledge, shirt sales are down since the change - a lot. But I think their profit margin rose enough that it doesn't hurt them. As in,

1. Up the price by $2
2. Buy cheaper shirt blanks
3. Lower the quality control a little bit
4. Profit. (Lose sales and still manage to make more overall)*

*This is just my theory. I in no way have actual financial records for woot.

ETA- Also, the reason no one is seeing a staff member respond to this issue directly anymore is this: How many times do you, as a customer, want to hear woot tell you "Nope, we're not going to change it back." ? I'm guessing not many. So, they just aren't talking to us about it anymore. It sucks, but hey - what else are the mods/service reps gonna do?

Josephus

j5 wrote:That's a bit unfair. I don't think the drop in QC was deliberate.

well, you cut the number of employees printing shirts a small amount, you get more efficiency, but you also lose a little bit of quality control. or, you cut the quality of the blanks a little bit, then not every shirt goes on the machine exactly the same way, or not as close as it did, and that reduces the print quality just a little. either way, the result is a drop in print quality that you really ought to be aware is going to happen.

Narfcake

Josephus wrote:well, you cut the number of employees printing shirts a small amount, you get more efficiency, but you also lose a little bit of quality control.

I really don't think anyone was cut, but I don't think much of any staff was added either with the added side sales, so there was still a net increase to their workload. And some of us would say they lost more than "a little bit of QC".

or, you cut the quality of the blanks a little bit, then not every shirt goes on the machine exactly the same way, or not as close as it did, and that reduces the print quality just a little. either way, the result is a drop in print quality that you really ought to be aware is going to happen.

As the print platens are significantly smaller than the shirts, this part is not a factor at all; any shirt-loading issues is with the operator, not the shirt or the equipment.

Where the shirt may be an issue in the end result is if the fabric is not as smooth. Fibrillation is the exact term, and it's when the fibers come up through the print, making it fuzzy. Screen printing is pretty tolerant of this, DTG not so much.

jroth420

Narfcake wrote:As the print platens are significantly smaller than the shirts, this part is not a factor at all; any shirt-loading issues is with the operator, not the shirt or the equipment.

Where the shirt may be an issue in the end result is if the fabric is not as smooth. Fibrillation is the exact term, and it's when the fibers come up through the print, making it fuzzy. Screen printing is pretty tolerant of this, DTG not so much.

Yes, more than a "little" QC indeed. It makes me more sad on days like today when I REALLY want the shirt, but know that it's just a waste of money because I won't be able to wear it. Bummer...

ba2pt

In my overall Woot career I only bought sixteen shirts, a small amount compared to the hundred-plus crowd, but I haven't bought a single Anvil, and no longer bother to recommend the website to friends or acquaintances, for all the reasons already stated, so I'll put this comment here as a record of my dissatisfaction.

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